10 Movies That Peaked Too Soon

Don't feel bad if you don't much remember Tom Tykwer's 2009 action thriller The International, a serviceable yet largely forgettable star vehicle for the criminally underappreciated Clive Owen.

Owen stars as Louis Salinger, an Interpol agent who finds himself investigating a far-reaching banking corruption scheme. At the end of the second act, the trail leads Salinger to New York's Guggenheim Museum, where he's suddenly fired upon by a fleet of assassins.

The six-minute sequence, impeccably filmed inside an absurdly convincing, purpose-built replica of the museum's interior, is so thrilling and suspenseful you're left to wonder why Tykwer didn't just stage the finale there.

Instead, the audience is left to decompress for a mostly action-devoid third act. It would've made more sense to have the bulk of the movie build slowly to a cathartic explosion of violence at film's end, rather than dish up this glorious scene mid-movie and leave audiences expecting more like it.